CARROLLTON - Matt Goetten became engulfed by Carrollton basketball in his pre-teens. Back in his days at St. John’s Elementary when he was in sixth grade, he watched along with the rest of the community when the 1984 Hawks made their first ever trip to state.
“I had the basketball fever," Goetten said. "Brannan, Gillingham, and Knox going to state watching that and the big excitement around the community. It’s always been a pretty good basketball culture here.”
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“We’ve had some success, and I don’t want to be the guy that drops the baton.”
For 23 years Jeff Krumwiede guided the Carrollton Hawks boys basketball team to winning season after winning season. Now, Goetten is the new man leading the charge and will patrol the sidelines.
“It’s a lot of pressure right? When I look back over the 23 years, there are very few losing seasons. Coach K had a great run here.”
Not only is Goetten from Carrollton, but he is also familiar with the current crop of Hawks in the basketball program. For the last two seasons, he served as an assistant coach and head coach of the JV squad that has been successful in his two seasons but will now make up almost the whole varsity roster.
“I’ve said to this anyone who listened to me last year, we had a fun group in JV and essentially I would tell them in the locker room at halftime before the games, “look around you guys because next year you’re the varsity. You’re playing JV right now but there’s nobody else, so there’s just this huge sucking sound of playing time.”
Much like the team, Goetten is a rookie when it comes to varsity as this is his first time coaching at the varsity level in high school basketball.
During the period when Krumwiede wasn’t sure on leaving, Goetten assumed the coaching duties for the team during the summer. He has rotated in mostly sophomores with some juniors that lack varsity experience, which may be their undoing. However, he sees plenty of potential within them.
“We got some talented guys, but just unproven on varsity. With young guys, they make young mistakes, but with talented guys, they make talented, positive plays,” Goetten said. “That’s kind of how the summer’s gone. I had high expectations for JV last year and they more or less performed to my expectations most of the time, but again when you have young guys, they make young guy mistakes. There’s no doubt we’ll have growing pains this year, but a lot of positives too.”
There are a handful of players that saw time on the floor, especially in the regionals that helped the Hawks win their third straight regional.
“Nathan Walker really stepped up big in the regionals. Ethan Brannan had a couple of starts. We had a couple of other guys that were on the cusp of getting a start,” Goetten said.
The lone returning senior is Kyle Watters, who was a reserve guard, but Goetten praised him for his contributions and the role he’ll have this season.
“Kyle’s one of those glue guys that does everything right. He’s been in the program and has been indoctrinated into the Coach K way of doing things, which I’m obviously continuing to a greater extent,” Goetten said.
One can assume Carrollton has a bright future in store with almost all of the underclassmen dominating the roster with quite a bit of potential. Goetten wants to take things slowly and preach that big things can happen this season nonetheless, but they have plenty of obstacles ahead of them and for him.
“You tend to do that, but I’m trying to impress upon the guys the urgency to play this season. Don’t let it be oh we’ll be good next season. That’s probably true, but I think we have that potential to be good this year. It’s not an easy road to hoe.”
As far as Goetten’s coaching style goes, he doesn’t see himself as another Krumwiede and
“I think of Coach K as a Gregg Popovich. Coach has this dry wit about him and a good sense of humor when you get to know him. Guys who don’t know him think he has a gruff exterior. I love Pop’s system in the way he gets the best out of his players. If I were going to compare styles, and I’m not saying success. I would probably be more of a Steve Kerr than a Gregg Popovich as far as the way I relate to the players and maybe even the style of basketball that I prefer to play.”
One thing that he takes away from the Krumwiede book of basketball knowledge is to look at what you’re players offer talent wise and scheme with that.
“You’re talent in your players dictate the way you’re going to play at this level. You got to be a chameleon. That’s one lesson I learned from Krumwiede,” Goetten said. “You can play any way you want to play, but when you look at your players and make a realistic assessment of what they can do you may have to adjust that.”
Coach Goetten is now the boss man with a young, inexperienced group, but the sun may be creeping on the edge of the horizon with promising potential among them. Knowing the history of Carrollton athletics and for the sake of it all, high school sports, the young Hawks may give us a surprise or two.
“We’re not going to diminish expectations because Coach K has left,” Goetten said. “We have to continue those high expectations that he built the program around. He built that culture here, but it did exist before he came here.”
